KScountrygal

It's antlerless season here in Kansas, so bucks with antlers are strictly off limits. No big deal, as I'm not a trophy hunter; I hunt for the meat and the experience, so everything I kill is a trophy. On this particular afternoon (1/15), I was taken by a friend to a "can't possibly miss" area crawling with deer. I sat behind a tree on the edge of a wheat field, and watched as a monstrous 14 point buck (with a drop tine) leisurely fed not 100 yards away. He didn't have a clue I was sitting right there watching him right through my rifle's scope. Over the next 20-30 minutes, he was joined by 5 or 6 other bucks, all 8 point or better. They were so busy arguing with each other that they were oblivious to everything else. Well, finally a younger animal (looked like a big doe) joined them, but it made the mistake of getting too close to Big Boy while he was eating. Big Boy and his cronies chased it off, but it came running right towards me. I didn't want it to wind up in my lap or wind me & spook everything within a 2 mile radius, so I lined up on its right lower shoulder (it was facing me, but quartering to the right a bit) and squeezed off a shot at around 70 yards. As he ran, I saw he was hit hard and knew the shot was a good one. The other deer still didn't have the foggiest notion what was going on; even after the shot (my 30-06 is LOUD!) they stood around looking at each other like "whatwas that?!". Eventually, they wandered off, and I decided to go track my deer down. After a quick search, I found it- a nice-sized young buck (his antlers were gone, probably a spike or fork buck). He'd run about 30 yards, jumped a fence, then rolled and slid down into a shallow ravine. The bullet had hit his right humerus, exploded through his ribs, then went right through his heart. Bone shrapnel took out his lungs; I figure he died in around 5 seconds, he was thoroughly bled out. After field dressing, I figure he weighed around 170 lbs. I had to drag him up & out of the ravine, over a short fence, and around 100 yards back to my truck. Thankfully, I'm strong as an ox (6' and 250#), or I'd never been able to do it by myself! Now the hard part starts: butchering & processing. Heck, shooting one is the EASY part- it's all the stuff that happens afterwards that is a lot less fun LOL. But I'll have a full freezer, what with all the roasts, steaks, and sausage I'll be making AND save myself $ by not going to a processor. All I gotta do is supply the know-how and effort, plus the Tylenol. I'm already eager to get started making jerky, and I have some boneless wild rabbit (I shot it with my bow the very next day right in my backyard) set aside to be ground with some venison into sausage.

Well, I'm just trying to put food on the table & could care less about getting a trophy (antlers ain't edible, and I'd imagine a buck would stink as bad as an old billy goat- yuck). I'm new to deer hunting, but have hunted small game all my life. Hunting the overcrowded, picked-over public lands (and avoiding spots the poachers have cleared out) where everything has been spooked into the next state just isn't working. I've found that unless you have deep, deep pockets, landowners won't give you the time of day- and if you're a woman, they'll pretty much just laugh at you (the exception is if you're willing to pay to play). Plus, people around my area just don't seem very interested in helping out a new deer hunter- I guess they don't want the competition or something? It's incredibly frustrating, and I had to vent somewhere.

Hi all, this is my very first post here... Last year I tried archery for my first ever deer season. I actively hunted from September til January, and wound up slapping a tag on a roadkill because I desperately needed to put SOMETHING in the freezer. This year, I've tried everything I could think of to put something in the freezer. So far, the closest I've come is nearly hitting one with my truck- and at the rate I'm sinking $ (that I don't have, I'm disabled) into this mess, it may very well be cheaper and easier to hunt with a Ford than an arrow, slug or bullet. I went to a public area at the opening of Kansas firearm season (my first firearm season), and was horrified to see people literally everywhere I looked- even if I could have taken a shot at anything, with so many people all over the place (some not even wearing blaze orange) it just wasn't safe- so I left. So, I went to another public area, and the poachers there were terrible. I found two headless carcasses, with only the backstraps cut out. A month ago, I also came across a pile of 14 dead deer (one headless buck, the rest were young-ish does) with only the backstraps removed. I told the game warden and he said essentially there wasn't much to be done, unless the people were caught in the act. :bang: Another hunter I talked to said he'd lined up a good shot on a decent buck, when someone shot it right out from under him; by the time he got there, the people had chopped off its head and split (he said it was a dark blue dually with Texas tags)...and he said he'd heard other hunters had this same thing happen. Problem is, they just drive a few miles & they're in Oklahoma. :no: The deer here have been hit hard by the drought, and the warm weather means they're just not active during the day...plus the poachers are just horrible. Normally they're in plague proportions and are a huge agricultural pest, but I haven't seen hide nor hair of anything, except squirrels and the occasional rabbit (I shoot those too, they're good eating). I'm honestly at my wit's end. I don't have a "mentor" (I don't know anyone) and I don't have the deep pockets to afford a lease or a guide; I'm on a very tight budget and have to justify the expense of hunting with results somehow. I'm not even interested in a trophy; I'm just wanting to put food on the table and really only want to shoot a doe. I went so far as to put my name on the Sheriff's roadkill pick-up list, but haven't gotten a call. I just don't know what to do. I've worked so hard at this, but it seems everywhere I go someone else has beaten me to the punch. I guess I could just shoot more rabbits and squirrels, but I have a tag and I'd like to fill it somehow, even if it means scavenging another roadkill. (One guy told me to just go spotlighting in the middle of the night and shoot one...way to promote ethical hunting to a beginner.) Honestly, I'm about ready to throw in the towel- and I don't know if I'll even bother with deer hunting next year. Words of wisdom, advice, or suggestions would be most welcome. If it helps, I live near Wichita.